Tips for Teachers

Tips for Teachers

What is the best way to use my books in your curriculum?
In my travels, visiting schools across the country, I’ve had the good fortune to meet many creative teachers and librarians. Not only have they read my books in their classrooms, but they’ve gone on to design some imaginative and thought-provoking activities to go along with them, as well.

If you have any great activities that you’d like to pass along, please email me and let me know about them. Unfortunately, I didn’t take down names over the years of the many teachers who deserve recognition here. So if you find an activity that you’ve created, be sure to let me know your name, and I will gladly give you credit.
Here are some I’d like to share with you…

Would Dear Austin be a better book if it were just a light sequel? Write a letter to the author to let her know how you feel.

Do you like history? Dear Austin is a good example of Historical Fiction. Research another time or event in history (American or otherwise) and write letters to your brother, sister or friend just like Levi and Austin did.

Act out one of Levi’s “scrapes” or a consequence (e.g. the plucking chickens).

Look up these words in the dictionary or thesaurus:

Misdeeds

Envisioning

Veering

Innocence

Resiliency

Risked

Marvel

Counter

Or…Find words in Dear Austin that you don’t know, make a list and look them up.

Activities for Dear Levi
Twelve year old orphan, Austin, writes letters to his brother as he travels the Overland Trail en-route to land left him by his father. A sensitive observer, he details the slow journey, untimely deaths, niceties bestowed on him by friends and the violent relations with the Sioux and Pawnee Indians.

Play the computer game “Oregon Trail”.

Design and create your own button. Make enough for everyone in your class. Swap the buttons with your classmates. Create your own button books.

Map the trail that Austin and his fellow travelers used.

Keep a personal diary in letter form for a specified amount of time.

Write several letters to Austin from Levi depicting what is happening back home.

Research your family history. How did they come to be in America? What was their country of origin? Have a cultural arts day, sharing music, food, and art.

Make a family tree, beginning with your immediate family.

Interview your elder family members, grandparents, aunts and uncles, or elder person who can share with you their memories of their family’s past.

Make a map of Dominic’s journey, from Italy to America.

Imaging that you are an immigrant and write a letter home to your family about your journey to America.

Write a poem titled “My First Look at Lady Liberty” – imagine that you are an immigrant and you are seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time as your ship comes into port. Draw a picture to go with your poem.

Make a timeline of your family and their journey to America.

Imagine that you can go back in time as Dominic did. Choose a country and a family and write a story about your trip – remember to choose a pet!

Each classroom chose a place in the story that Jack and Gramps might have been going to, the zoo, the bakery, the aquarium, etc. Then they created their own bulletin boards based on those places. What fun the halls were to walk down! It was so eye-catching I thought I was walking into a theatre set!